Shift happens again (and this time it’s personal)

In the EDEN plenary session this morning, Lani Gunawardena talked about language, identity and gender in synchronous cybercultures. She's from the University of New Mexico and her research focuses on how students and the general public from two cultures, Moroccan (n=55) and Sri Lankan (n=50), communicated through live chat with people they didn’t know. Lani argues that identity plays a key role in trust building, self disclosure and the way language forms were used to generate a sense of immediacy. Identity she says, is expressed by age, sex and location. The continual shifting and malleability of personal online identities seemed to be a pervasive phenomenon, she discovered.

Anonymity gave participants more freedom to express themselves online and enabled them to avoid all of the above. Stereotyping she claims, takes place more easily in text only environments. Mohammed for example, was labelled a ‘terrorist’ by some other users, so a change of name to ‘Green Python’ sanitised his identity and enabled him to connect more readily. Some users changed their online identities to appeal to, and connect with different audiences. Some posed as Europeans and even changed their gender so they would not be marginalised by other online users.

The techniques online chatters use to detect imposters involve asking a series of questions and then repeat them later on to check consistency. Mobile phones are also used to verify the authenticity of the person at ‘the other end’. Over emphasis and exaggeration is often an indicator that someone has manipulated their identity online.

Self disclosure and trust building enhance social presence Lani argued, and interestingly, anonymity increased the ability to self disclose personal details. However, it also encouraged superficial relationships to grow at the expense of deeper social ties. The use of idioms increased when users felt they could begin to trust each other. Emoticons were used to convey meaning when text alone was insufficient, but interestingly mobile phones and other devices were used to increase a sense of social presence and immediacy.

This was quite an interesting study, but it remains to be seen how this kind of knowledge can be used to improve or even transform the delivery of e-learning. It is a limited study given the small samples size, and may be overly prescriptive in its conclusions. However, it highlights some important principles for educators to consider when they embark on the use of synchronous methods.

Crossed lines

Some professor over in the states has just blogged about his (or her) reservations about colleagues using FaceBook. In the anonymous blog, revealingly called Rate Your Students, (bit of a give away..??) s/he asks rhetorically: 'Is anyone else creeped out by profs who spend as much time on Facebook as our students?' I say rhetorically, because s/he doesn't appear to have any facility for readers to feed comments back. The blog post, titled 'Who's FaceBook for?' goes on to tell readers how deeply disturbed s/he is: 'My colleague across the hall is always talking about events he reads about on Facebook, knows the nicknames of most of his students, and posts a ton of personal info about himself on his own page.' Well, fancy that, but it could be worse I reckon - he could be on Bebo.

The anonymous blogger continues.... 'He showed me a long list of his "friends," all students, and on his Facebook "wall," dozens of students had left him messages like: "Prof. Dude, how's it hanging?" and "Yo, Proffy, wot that smile on yo face?!?!?"I've never heard a single untoward thing about him - and this is a very gossipy place - but it still seems odd to me.' Well, perhaps this tells our blogger something about the power of social networking. It certainly tells me something about online identity and how some academics relate to their students. Oh, and isn't that last statement just a little gossipy?

Our anonymous and visibly shrinking academic in a state signs off ominously with: 'Is Facebook one of those lines that faculty shouldn't be crossing?' I guess it all depends on how you view your students, doesn't it...? The same professor seems to spend a lot of time on blogs though - s/he has 47 posts for October already... 38 more than me.

MyFace or SpaceBook ... or MyFaceBo?

Still the debate goes on. Which is the best, MySpace or FaceBook? And where is Bebo in all this? I know I have already been on my hind legs ranting about this, but I'm coming back to it, as it seems so many are interested in it. I'm getting more hits for my last post on this subject than for all the others put together, so here goes...

There are those who dis FaceBook (see NightMonkeyShines for example) because it is too easy to get caught up in the friends or potential friends list, especially if you fall into the trap of finding out who else you 'know' is already a FaceBook user. Says NightMonkey....

"I tentatively gave that information only to have a list shoot back that had every name checked in the list. If you went too fast through this screen, it would "appear" that the checked boxes were all people who had Facebook accounts but if you read the fine print you see that it defaults to sending everyone in your address book and invitation to open a Facebook account... ergo it sends SPAM!!!"

NightMonkey (who is apparently a cat sat at a desktop) closed down their FaceBook account immediately, but maintains a MySpace account to keep in touch with their students. Well, I shamelessly admit that I keep Bebo, MySpace and FaceBook accounts for similar reasons. But I still prefer FaceBook. Perhaps one day we won't have to choose and they will all merge together into a MyFaceBo space... yeah right, when hell freezes over.

More next time...

Alive and clicking

I got bored the other day and Googled myself. It sounds painful but instead turned out to be just a little bit disconcerting. It seems there is more than one of me. OK, my homepage came out as number one on the Google listings, which was gratifying, but there were 39,400 other hits, and not all of them were me (Look, I didn’t go through them all – I wasn’t that bored). So there are other Steve Wheelers in the world, probably hundreds of them, and they have some interesting, and sometimes bizarre occupations….

Some other Steve Wheelers ….

• a student at North Georgia Technical College (Who, where, what, eh?)
• an Associate Professor of Accounting in the Eberhardt School of Business, University of the Pacific, California (I wish)
• the bass guitarist for the JJ Kasner Band (I actually can play the bass but will not lower myself)
• an Environmental Health and Housing Consultant (nope, far too boring)
• an Astro-photographer (sounds like a paparrazi)
• an Ice skating illusionist! (I’m speechless….. but just to prove I’m not making it up there are pictures of him in action at: http://www.genting.com.my/en/live_ent/2000/magiconice/index.htm)
• a Sculptor, Swordsmith and Cutler (nice combination mate)
• a Proctologist (No, seriously, straight up!)

The most famous Steve Wheeler (Number two on the Google listing) is an American abstract painter/artist who was born in 1912 and died in 1992 (Dead? And I had so much to offer….). This is not so funny, because on the electronic library system at the University of Plymouth, I noticed that they had me (the living one) confused with dead Steve. So all my publications were listed as Steve Wheeler 1912-1992. Some of my students, I thought, might be disconcerted to be taught by a deceased person. Maybe that explains why some were not turning up for my lectures.

So I e-mailed the library and explained that I wasn’t dead, it was mistaken identity, 'I’m alive and clicking' I said, and could they resurrect me please. They told me they would dig up somebody who could change the records. It took more than three days. I’m now restored to full corporeal presence on the library records, and my students have one excuse less to miss my lectures. Yahoo!